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Sunday, January 30, 2011

So here we are with 2 months left. I don't know which seems shorter or freaks me out more in terms of leaving my classroom unprepared. 8 weeks? 2 months? Either way, I'm still hoping to work up until I go into labor or my doctors refuse to let me work. And either way, it freaks me out because I'm so busy and focused just trying to get my lessons for the next month all squared away and pull off our school's first medieval festival that I haven't had time to put a schedule of lessons for long-term (and as yet undetermined) substitute. Things were so much easier when I knew I was having my baby in the summer. This not knowing thing is awful in the middle of the school year. I go to the doc on Wednesday.

So here's some updates:Baby B still has no potential names.

He is now the size of a squash, but what does that mean? I know he's definitely bigger than any summer variety squash (like zucchini or crook neck). But does it mean he weighs the same as a squash or that he's the length of a squash? Acorn squash are small but dense. Is he a spaghetti squash? a butternut? (I love butternut squash). All this talk of squash is making me nostalgic - acorn squash puree was Liam's very first solid food!

Home scale says I'm only slightly up from my pre-preggo weight. Only about 1-2 lbs on avg. I made a specific point to ask my high-risk clinic nurse when she called a couple weeks ago for my blood sugar report. My doctor hasn't said anything about the weight. The nurse said that if I'm eating right (following my diabetic diet), snacking frequently, and not feeling hungry or deprived then it's okay to not gain weight. She said I was overweight to begin with (I know) and that the doctor would probably only want a 15lb gain overall. She also reminded me the fastest gain will be in the last 2 months, when I'll probably gain 1lb. week.

Speaking of diet . . . I've been bad lately. I've been sneaking in sugary snacks here and there and everywhere. So this last week I decided I needed to monitor my sugars more than my required 3x week. The worst thing is that my fasting glucose levels have been sneaking up. They're supposed to be <100 and preferably <90. Well, this week I've had several levels higher than 90 and the last two days were just over 100. I'm gonna get in trouble. I MUST have a late night snack of only protein!!!

Aches? The sciatica is easing. A lot in fact. At the beginning of last week it was so bad that I could barely stand. But I think I've finally gotten used to the new mattress (which is heavenly by the way). Since about Wednesday, the pain has just gone away. Ahhhh! I did get some stretching ideas from a coworker who is seeing a PT for his sciatica. They help when I do feel some twinging.

Weirdest moment this week was watching B spin somersaults around my belly. Jon got one of those weird-cool kicks out of it. I just liked watching him go-go-go. He's very active. Doctor said last time that this one might be our athlete...great.

Cravings? Many, but all things I really shouldn't have. Ice cream. Candy. The best was my idea was lays potato chips dipped in See's chocolate.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Yesterday I did really poorly in terms of my diabetic diet. I was supposed to be monitoring my sugars (Tues, Thurs, Sunday) but completely forgot to take my fasting glucose and then started my day off right with a giant chocolate chip cookie made by Jon the night before. I spent the rest of the day maintaining a diet of higher carb:protein ration than I'm supposed to. I also spent the day napping which was probably an effect of too many carbs.

So by dinner time, I was feeling icky and Jon made me a dinner of asian-flavored chicken breast and a spinach & tomato salad. Liam got plain seasoned chicken breast and nothing else as he doesn't normally eat any veggies and is very particular about his carbs (my kid doesn't eat noodles - what toddler doesn't eat buttered noodles?!!!). But he came over to my bowl of salad while I was eating it and reached right in and grabbed a spinach leaf. Wuh?! I don't use dressing; this was a plain boring spinach flavored spinach leaf. He gobbled it down. Then he grabbed more. Liam spent more time eating my salad (he had a couple of tomato slices too) than he ate his chicken. Too funny. The only other time we've seen this is when we went out to Black Angus just before meeting Santa Claus and he was eating ice berg lettuce off of Jon's and my mom's salads. Those were covered in dressing so we figured it was the dressing he liked. But no, maybe it's the crunch of the leaves. Can't say I'm complaining about a toddler who'll eat his leafy greens.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Apparently this was a desperate plea for a bath last night. I was home from work. Jon was cooking up a little bass for dinner. Liam had managed to score one of the earasable markers that came with a set of mark-able books. But he was really good and was keeping it on some old copies of Jon's resume. He then got absorbed in Go Diego Go and must have been wiping at his nose because I looked up and he had marked red all over his face. No biggie since I knew the marker was washable too. But Jon took the marker from him and gave him another washable marker (don't know if Jon knew the red one was washable). So now my child is running around with a turquoise marker too. But did he draw at all with it? Not much. He pretty much went straight for his face. I managed to get one good pic. Then he tried to play with my laptop (I was blogging about the new beds) and threw a fit when I told him "no." So I got these shots too. All-in-all, Liam ending up getting a bath last night and he did a good job washing his own face. :) Oh, please excuse my crazy-eyes.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Well, we finally did it. We upped the size of our bed. Jon's been moaning about getting a king-sized bed for more than a year now. He claims we are really uncomfortable in it. At his birthday in April, I asked him if he would rather have an e-reader or a bigger bed. He voted for bigger bed. But he ended up with neither since we just couldn't swing it financially. Well, the New Years sales were our godsend. Thanks to mega sale at Sears and my mom having just opened a Sears charge, we were able to purchase our big new bed(s).We got a Cal-king for us. Liam got a twin (but my mom paid for that mattress). Both new beds are actually the same model. Yeah sure it was the 2nd cheapest in the store, but aside from frugality, we both liked the feel. It was firm enough for support, but the euro-top makes it squishy. Liam loves his new bed, but he's also very wary of sleeping in it; it's rather big for a little guy.

So this morning I woke up with a marked increase in my sciatica pain (oh yeah, that symptom is back...on the other side than what I had during my first pregnancy). I know it was from sleeping in a strange bed and that I'll feel more comfortable in a few days. Jon said he felt like he was in a hotel bed or sleeping at Grandma's house. It just felt weird for all of us. Can you blame Liam for waking with whimpers just 2 minutes before my alarm went off?

It was tiring to work with my back/hip/leg pain all day. But not as bad as yesterday when I had a bout of contractions in the middle of an afternoon class. Not too much to worry about; I'm assuming they were braxton hicks. But I felt really low and slow before my class began and then about 30 min in I had definite tightening and discomfort in the abdomen. I realized I can't tell if it would be early contractions/labor as I never went into labor on my own with Liam. I walked around for 2 1/2 weeks being dilated to 3.5cm and 90% effaced on my cervix and still needed to have my water broken and pitocin.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

I just have to say I have a most wonderful friend in WA. When I got home tonight, Jon said Kara had sent me a package. I thought it might be some of her maternity shirts since she gave me 2 while she was visiting over New Years. She's smaller than I am and definitely not as wide across the shoulders, but still...free clothes right?!

Well, I open the package and there's a shirt, a PINK sweater, and a cardigan all with tags still on. Oh man, stuff she never even wore? Jon found a gift receipt and said it must have been some stuff she was gifted at Christmas and didn't want. But NO! The receipt was dated 1/10/11. She literally just bought the shirts on Monday and sent them to me. Holy cow! What a friend! I feel like a little bit of stress has come off my shoulders - someone heard my woes and responded with a super surprise.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Pregnancy is starting to wear on my back. I hate side sleeping and I'm starting to get the first twinges of sciatica. I miss belly sleeping. Last night was my worst night because we gave the cats their flea treatment yesterday afternoon. Well Poppy spent the entire [expletive deleted] night sleeping wrapped around my head. I mean wrapped. Because I was so locked in, I had trouble rolling and tossing like I needed to to take the pressure off of my back. The new bed can't come soon enough!

Speaking of new bed...we're finally getting a king sized bed. We have been trying to do it for the last - oh I don't know how many months - since Jon's last birthday. So many things kept us from buying; the top two reasons are the fact that we moved to Colusa and then we had NO money. Well, my mom and Sear's came through for us. No, my mom didn't buy the bed for us (sadly) but she did offer to put it on her store card so that we wouldn't have to risk getting dinged on our credit or rejected flat out. Then Sears had a phenomenal New Year mattress deal. 50% off + 10% off any set over $499 + free delivery & haul away. Funny thing, we ended up getting the second cheapest model but after rolling around on it for a long time, it really was the one for us. Firm but with a "euro-top". We added the most expensive frame. Got free warranty (10 yrs on the mattress and foundation, lifetime on the frame) but unfortunately no free delivery or haul away as we live out in BFN. And because my mom put it on her store charge, we got the option of NO INTEREST FOR 18 MONTHS -w00t!!!! And she got store appreciation points for redeeming too. The bed is supposed to be delivered on the 13th.

Sunday night: My mom also bought Liam a twin sized bed. It's a combo birthday/Christmas gift. It's actually the same model mattress and I think it will do him for awhile (until he's 11 and 6'17" right?). So we pulled the mattress from his crib on Sunday afternoon and set him up a little nest on the floor. He did okay going to bed and was so exhausted from not napping all day that he went down fairly easily. We only had to get up a couple times to put him back in as he'd rolled out.Monday night: It was just as easy to put him to bed because we'd spent the whole afternoon with the Mathesons and, again, Liam got no nap. But at 2:30 am, Jon was called to duty. I was kept awake for a good 30 minutes or so while Liam wailed. Sometime around 4:30 Jon came limping back to bed. He'd had to sleep on the floor with his head on the mattress - bad idea. My poor hubster got the worst muscle tension in his neck from it. Thankfully, the little man slept until 9am yesterday so Jon was able to sleep for several hours in our bed.

Tuesday night: Liam refused to nap in his nest yesterday afternoon. Oh well. We have a lot of trouble getting him to nap, crib or no. But he went to bed easily again since he was exhausted. But Jon was called to duty at 3 something. My alarm was already going off by the time he came back to bed and Liam was obviously not asleep. We tried to ignore him. Finally Jon asked me to get up and go in with him (I'm currently trying to get back on my work schedule for next week, but was worried about getting up and starting my morning since Liam would want to get up). I opened the door and Liam was wandering around his room crying "momma, daddy!" but there were no tears. He saw me, smiled, and ran over to his changing pad (new frog in arm) and said "diaper!" Okay...so I changed his nighttime diaper which was pretty full. Then we rocked for a couple songs on his lullaby CD. He was out like a light but the second his head made contact with the bed, he woke up and started fussing. So I laid next to him and patted his back for a few more songs. I tried to get up as my back was KILLING ME from the cat fiasco last night, but as soon as I made a noise, he sat up and whined again. I told him I was still there and sat next to the bed. He settled, closed his eyes and didn't make any movement when the other cat came lumbering in and tromping on stuff (how does a 7 1/2lb cat make so much noise and be so ungraceful?). We sat watching him for awhile. We snuck out. HE hasn't peeped the entire time I've been writing this entry. My back is killing me. The coffee isn't kicking in yet.

Like I said, no one is getting a decent night's sleep at the Rogers' house.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

This is probably gonna be more of a life update than a pregnancy update. Depending on who you talk to/what book or website you read, this is the week I got into the third trimester. I don't care if it was last week or this; it has become painfully obvious that I'm now in tri 3.

Yesterday afternoon was so so nice. We got to see our friends from Washington and their new little Baby Boy, my de-facto nephew, Aidric. I've known this couple for years. I went to high school with Kara and met Mark when the three of us started working in the cafe at Borders Books. I went off to college and Jon, Mark, and Kara followed me up to Chico the following semester. Kara only managed one semester before going home; Mark lived with Jon and me for the next 3 years. Mark would have been in my wedding as my "Man of Honor" if the US Navy had let his butt fly back home. Jon and I helped to break off Mark's ill-fated engagement to a true harpy of a woman just 1 week before the wedding and, within months he started dating his old friend Kara. Just a week before my due date with Liam, they called us from S. Carolina (where he was stationed and she was visiting) to say they were getting married that weekend. They've since been stationed in Bremerton, WA (across Puget Sound from Seattle). They called us first before their parents, to make the official announcement that Kara was pregnant. We visited them before our cruise this summer and our official start to trying to get pregnant with Baby B. Kara had Aidric on December 2; because her sister had to push her wedding up early, they made the stressful trip with a 4 week old on a plane in the holiday travel season to fly back home to Rocklin, CA. Hence, we got to see our little nephew and hold a tiny baby (and of course visit with our dear friends one more time before Mark goes on a year's worth of multiple deployments with his carrier).

Kara was kind enough to give me some maternity shirts that are long sleeved and I could possibly wear to work. One is a little too small in the shoulders (I'm broad like a swimmer and long waisted to boot so shirts any time of the year is next to impossible for me to feel comfortable in) but I'll make do. It was amazing holding a little baby again and knowing that I'll be holding my own in just a couple more months.

Kara is also getting pretty good at the mom thing, although I love how they've barely even gotten to hold their little guy while being home and visiting all the grandparents and greats. They were also ecstatic to leave their little guy at home while we all went out for lunch at Boudin Bakery - ahh it was so nice for me and Kara; she's been missing "real" sourdough bread and I've been missing bread in general. We got soup in breadbowls, yum!

Liam was charming and delightful. Us grownups had a wonderful gossipy time and of course the guys had to suffer through all the gorey details of a woman's body postpartum. Mark is also starting to get comfortable with his little boy. He didn't fall into the fatherhood role as easily as Jon did, but you can tell it's growing on him.

Update: So today, I've gained back some of the weight from being so sick on Thursday (and again blech on Sunday). I'm only up .2 lbs from my first appointment. My blood sugar levels have been really good for the last two weeks. I even felt really good during the first week of vacation and I attribute it to keeping my sugars under control. This week was a little weirder since I was trying to just keep food down for a couple days. Baby B is the size of an eggplant now: about 14.5"-15" long and a little over 2 lbs. He kicks the crud outta me at night, right at bedtime when I'm trying to read and get settled. I'm getting a twingy nerve pain in my lower left spine - praying it's not a return of my pregnancy sciatica. The belly itches. The boobs aren't growing much (but the ass is much smaller and my maternity jeans are slip-slip-slipping down to the point of distraction). Heartburn has shown up during bedtime or sleep a couple of nights this week, but it's been controllable with a single Tums (did you know I have to have sugar-free antacids? sheesh!). Still no name yet. My depression has been getting harder to deal with, but that's "a whole 'nuther" post. New development: I haven't worn my wedding rings all week! I had had to have the diamonds upsized for our anniversary last year because I was hovering around 200lbs and my finger was just too fat. Well I'm still right around 200lbs but I've lost so much due to the GD diet that my diamonds just spin around my finger and even my wedding ring is getting too big. Note that I'm wearing them in the pic below, but that's because we were going out in public. I don't even know if I'll be able to do even that much longer.

The Mathesons and the Rogerses with our little boys. Mark, Kara, Aidric (1m), Liam (29m), Jon, "Baby B" (28w in utero) and me!I also love how Aidric and B will be close enough in age to be pals if their parents can ever be in the same location at the same time again. Liam will be old enough to hate his tag-along brothers, but you know they will idolize him as younger siblings should.